THE WITNESS
Confessions of a Former Mafia Mistress
Rhode Island ’ s first female cardiologist recalls the winding road that led her to cross paths with the state ’ s Mafia elite , in more ways than one .
PHOTOGRAPHY , THIS PAGE : COURTESY OF BARBARA ROBERTS . OPPOSITE PAGE : ( MANOCCHIO ) RICHARD BENJAMIN-USA TODAY NETWORK ; BOOK COVER COURTESY OF PUBLISHER .
ON DEC . 4 , 1980 , Barbara Roberts ’ career was on the way up .
The state ’ s first female cardiologist , she had come to the Miriam Hospital after completing a prestigious Gorlin fellowship at Brigham and Women ’ s Hospital and serving on the faculty at Penn State College of Medicine . She ’ d also worked at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland where she learned how to sail , a hobby she continued on Narragansett Bay . A single mother of three , she would eventually become the first director of the hospital ’ s Women ’ s Cardiac Center .
But in 1980 , she was still an up-and-coming doctor with her own private practice , possibly the last person expected to run in the state ’ s organized crime circles . So it was with some trepidation she found herself on the way to see Raymond L . S .
FROM LEFT : Barbara Roberts speaking at the last mass anti-Vietnam war demonstration , January 1973 . Barbara Roberts ( right ) with Luigi “ Baby Shacks ” Manocchio ( center ) and her daughter , Dory , in 1982 .
Patriarca , head of the mob in all of New England , on that fateful night . It ’ s a story she recounted in her 2019 memoir , The Doctor Broad , a Mafia Love Story , and in a recent interview at her Jamestown home .
“ I ’ m in the car thinking , ‘ What have you gotten yourself into , Barbara ?’” she recalls .
Roberts met the Patriarca family through well-known defense attorney Jack Cicilline , whom she had hired to represent her in a custody dispute . Raymond Patriarca Jr . had expressed interest in having her become his father ’ s doctor , but she hadn ’ t yet met the patient when she was summoned to State Police headquarters alongside
Cicilline one night . The Mafia head had been arrested , and there were questions as to whether he was well enough to stand trial .
“ The first thing I thought was ‘ Oh my god , he ’ s so tiny ,’” she says . “ It became apparent to me very early on that putting this man on trial would be tantamount to a death sentence .”
Patriarca never did stand trial , and the controversy around that decision pulled Roberts into the firestorm of media coverage that followed the aging mob boss . She began making weekly house calls until his death four years later . As a result , many doctors stopped referring her patients , though some self-referred
68 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I MARCH 2025